The present invention relates generally to refuse collection units and, more particularly, to a collection unit within which segregation of differing types of refuse is possible.
In light of public awareness for the need to recycle certain types of refuse, increasing efforts have been made by municipalities and private organizations to facilitate recycling of various types of refuse, such as aluminum items, glass materials, paper materials and plastic materials, by offering services to collect such items on a regular basis. One of the drawbacks, however, is that each of the various types of recyclable refuse materials must be segregated from the nonrecyclable refuse as well as one from the other, prior to collection. As a result, the burden of segregating the various types of recyclable refuse materials usually rests upon the individual members of the public.
Various attempts have been made to provide containers having separate compartments for segregation of recyclable and nonrecyclable materials. None of these attempts, however, provide a container for household use which is aesthetic and which has easily identified separate compartments for convenient and easy segregation, storage and disposal of both recyclable and nonrecyclable refuse.
For example, such compartmentalized refuse containers are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ 3,720,346 Cypher 4,114,776 Piuss 4,801,034 Sandomeno 4,834,253 Crine 4,878,592 Lee 4,893,719 Lombardi et al. ______________________________________
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a household refuse collection unit adapted for receiving and storing various types of recyclable refuse materials and nonrecyclable refuse materials therein in a segregated manner. It is a further object of this invention to provide a refuse collection unit which is suitable for household use and which provides a convenient way to segregate and dispose of the refuse as part of the normal household activity. Another object of this invention is to provide a novel refuse collection unit having one storage area for the segregated storage of various recyclable materials and a second storage area for the storage of nonrecyclable refuse, each storage area being readily identifiable. Another object of this invention is to provide a novel refuse collection unit providing for easy removal of the refuse therefrom.